Istanbul and Bicycling, Like Dark Bread It’s Good For Everyone

Imagine a beautiful city with a Mediterranean climate, set on a peninsula suffused with rolling hills and connected to its greater metropolitan area by iconic bridges. A city known for its rich and diverse culture, expressed through unique neighborhoods full of vibrant street life, world class food, and stunning architecture, attracting year-round visitors from near and far. It’s the kind of place that people leave their hearts in and care deeply about, where a small group of dedicated locals can bring about change and start new movements. You know, like turning a congested metropolis into a bicycle-friendly oasis.

I am talking, of course you guessed it, about Istanbul. The fabled city on the Golden Horn of the Bosphorus Strait has seen it almost all: Rising and falling empires, crusades, progressive revivals, and in the last half century, unbridled suburban sprawl. However, one thing missing from its resume is a history of bicycle culture. Unlike in many of its northern European counterparts, the bike as a means of transportation hasn’t held a prominent role in recent history, a phenomenon that aligns Istanbul much more with San Francisco and other aspiring U.S. bicycle cities than, say, Copenhagen or Amsterdam.